In another life
by Astrael Slytherin
Summary: Three shinobi get reborn into the Naruto cast
1. The Beginning and the early Years

Chapter 1 - The Beginning and the early Years

Sakura was a bright child. She had a lot of energy but preferred to spent her days reading in the shadow of the ever-present trees. She learned how to walk and talk before she turned a year old and her parents called her a prodigy.

When she learned how to read before her third birthday and proceeded to soak in everything related to shinobi life that she could, her parents turned concerned, but if that was the path their daughter wanted to take then they would support her unconditionally.

When she began to bring home books about chakra theory and sealing her parents shared a look over her head. Her next birthday present would turn out to be practice kunai and shuriken and clothing appropriate for a budding kunoichi.

With each year Sakura's hair darkened until the once pink tresses had the colour of freshly spilled blood and later on vibrant crimson. Her eyes remained clear amethyst but they were sharp and had an edge to them no even her long hair could hide.

—

When the day came for Uzumaki Naruto to turn three the Sandaime took him out to eat lunch with him at Ichiraku's Ramen.

Naruto was overjoyed he seldom received positive attention and most of the time people looked at him with scorn or hate.

So when the Sandaime invited him for ramen bright red eyes lit up in happiness.

Later on in the night as he lay on his futon in the orphanage something seemed to shift in his mind. That night he dreamed of a life already lived. A life of war, family and duty. Of secrets, of raven and crimson hair and of black and purple eyes. When he turned in his sleep silvery white spikes of hair brushed past his eyebrows as the moonlight illuminated a face on a cliff the exact likeness to the one he wore in his dreams.

The Hokage placed him in his own apartment the following day and if he started training afterwards then nobody noticed.

There was nobody waiting for him who could have made note of his exhausted state or the dirt on his clothes. So he worked to regain what he had lost and if his pool of chakra was more vast than he remembered it being he filed it away to be analyzed at a later time.

—

Uchiha Sasuke was an ordinary child, well as ordinary a child of the Uchiha clan could be with a genius for a brother.

He was a little shy but he adored his older brother. He tried to live up to his achievements and make his father proud, although all the latter ever had for him was a frown and a comparison to his brother.

He entered the academy when he turned five.

When he entered the classroom he went to the backrow and sat beside a redheaded girl and a silver-haired boy. He liked their company. The redhead was quiet but could be vicious if the occasion demanded it, the boy on the other hand was always calm and wore an almost constant frown, the only times without it was when it was only the three of them and sometimes they would even get a smile out of the stoic boy. Their presence felt like home to Sasuke and so they continued to meet and sit next to each other and if Sasuke glared at the teacher because he had graded Naruto's test unfairly more than once well it was well deserved.


	2. Remembrance and Goodbye

Chapter 2 - Remembrance and Goodbye

The night of the massacre Sasuke returned home late. He had been training with Sakura and Naruto and they tended to forget the time when they were all focused on their own projects.

So when he returned home to find the district utterly silent every instinct screamed at him to run and to panic. Instead a strange calm overcame him, his senses sharpened and he took to the shadows. As he came across the first corpse all he could feel were muted terror and a sinking feeling in his stomach that he hoped was wrong. Despite his urge to scream and race to his house to see if his parents, his brother, were alive he remained silent and in the shadows instincts awakening which he didn't know he had. Opening the backdoor without a sound he crouched down and crept towards the living room where he could see a shadow moving.

When he was about to open the door he had just reached, he heard his father calling his brother a gentle soul and his brother promising to protect him. The sound of a blade sliding out of a scabbard and slicing through flesh before being sheathed again told him all he needed to know.

He wanted to rage, to cry, to demand answers from his brother, but the only thing he did was sliding down the wall next to the door with his back pressing against the wood and closing his eyes.

And he cried, without a sound bloody tears escaped his eyes as they began to burn and he _remembered._

_He remembered being Uchiha Izuna brother to Uchiha Madara._

_He remembered creeping through the forest after Madara, seeing him meet the Senju Heir Hashirama, noticing that the other had also been followed._

_He remembered meeting Senju Tobirama._

_He remembered his scowling face and their silent promise to keep their brothers meeting secret as long as they could._

_He remembered sneaking out to meet up with Tobirama._

_He remembered Uzumaki Shikyo._

_He remembered as she stumbled upon him and Tobirama all red and grace and confusion._

_He remembered how seamlessly she fit into their dynamic._

_He remembered how they continued to meet up long after they were ordered to spy on their brothers._

_He remembered how they began to love each other, one stolen moment at a time._

_He remembered her die. How she met up with them bleeding and a „I love you" on her lips, blood soaking through her battle kimono._

_He remembered how they held her close in her last moments._

_He remembered how they promised her to meet up in the next life and that they would never forget her._

_He remembered Tobirama gathering her now cold body and promising to take her body back to the Uzumaki to bury, something he could not have done for his clan was not allied with them, it would have brought up questions neither were ready to answer._

_He remembered how driven they both had become, throwing themselves in the war and fighting without caution._

_He remembered how their fights got more and more brutal every time they clashed, and how the sorrow that was clear to both of them was seen as hatred by their brothers and clans._

_He remembered the moment Tobirama appeared in front of him from the other side of the battlefield, knew he could have evaded the others attack if he wanted, instead he remembered moving just enough that Tobirama's attack would prove fatal._

_He remembered the crushing sorrow and regret in Tobirama's eyes along with resigned understanding._

_He remembered telling him „See you in our next life" before his brother was there screaming his name and calling for a retreat._

_He remembered telling Madara to be careful of the Senju and knew the moment the words left his lips that they had been a mistake._

So when the door next to him opened and his brother stood there ANBU armor splattered with blood, it was the only he could do to look into his eyes as his Mangekyou activated and a new set of bloody tears spilled down his cheeks. He could see his brothers shock in the minute widening of his eyes. „Go" it was the only thing he could say „go before they find you and take care of yourself." With that he closed his eyes again. He knew his brother. Both of them loved him more than themselves. He also knew Itachi was a pacifist, he could see it now, the troubled look he had worn the past months maybe years. His new, well old, memories brought it to his attention.

When he didn't hear him move he opened his eyes again. Itachi was staring at him, silently questioning why he did not seem to be upset. He let out a sigh, both his brothers were idiots. With another glance at Itachi he stood up from the floor and went to the kitchen. He grabbed a blank scroll from a pile in the corridor and proceeded to raid the pantry. He made sure to stack nonperishable and perishable food separately and took an ink brush and ink from the counter. Unrolling the scroll he half turned to his brother. „You are one of the most pacifistic people I know. If you saw fit to slaughter our whole clan then there is something different going on than just you losing your mind." He quirked a corner of his mouth at the thought and made to inscribe a storage seal, „So you will take these" he turned and quickly got two more scrolls which he also inscribed, „and after we seal what you will need you are going to make sure you get out of Konoha as soon as you can, unharmed. I know you're good enough not to let them catch you. I know where the contract for the crows is, I am either going to sign it or get another summon."

The unspoken ‚so you better keep in contact' did not go unnoticed.

With that he finished sealing the food and scooped up the scrolls. With a scowl in Itachi's direction he made his way to his brothers room threw him one of the empty storage scrolls, growled „pack" and continued to the armoury.

Itachi seemingly having decided to take his brothers order at face value entered his room and packed what clothes and other necessities he was going to need.

Five minutes later saw the brothers reconvene in the foyer. Sasuke had snatched the scroll his brother was holding and slotted it in the holster that was already holding the other two scrolls. After he had made sure they were secured he fastened it to his brothers's belt mumbling beneath his breath about idiotic older brothers. Taking a step back he looked Itachi up and down then picked up his brothers ANBU mask and giving him a deadpan stare pressed it on his face. He judged that it was dark enough that no one would notice the bloodstains against the dark material of the armor.

—

Itachi really did not know what had overcome his brother. He originally planned to frighten him to make sure he would become a target for him to grow against. But whatever happened had given his baby brother the Mangekyou Sharingan and had obviously influenced his personality. If Itachi had been in a right mental state he would have grown suspicious, but he was already numb and in a state of perpetual shock. So when his brother shoved him out the front door, told him he hadn't seen him today and proceeded to tell him to make himself scared before he closed the door in his face he only threw one last look last his home before he blenden into the shadows and made his way out of Konoha.

It was laughably easy, with his mask on neither the ANBU nor the guards at the gate questioned him and he could walk out unobstructed.


	3. Aftermath

Chapter 3 - Aftermath

If you asked Uchiha Sasuke what it meant to have family he would answer „Trouble".

Izuna stared at the door he had closed a moment before, sighed and turned around. He would need to make sure it seemed as if he had not come home tonight. As he gathered his weapons and school supplies he thought about what to do. He could go back to the training ground and actually train, but he really did not want to right now. He sighed again. It seemed to become a habit.

As he caught sight of himself in the mirror he grimaced. Two bloody tear tracks ran right down to his chin, just his luck that they had not gotten his shirt bloody. He went into the bathroom and, careful not to leave evidence, washed the drying blood off. He checked again that nothing remained then made his way out the back door closing it behind him and went into the direction of the Naka river. Sooner or later an ANBU patrol would notice something was amiss and he definitely did not want to be anywhere near the district then.

Which brought him back to his question where he wanted to go now. He thought about it, he could ask Sakura but she had parents which would question why he was there and not at home. Naruto on the other hand lived alone as far as he knew. That could work. No one would know he didn't come back with Naruto, he heard him telling them last month that his apartment building was empty besides him, strange that, but no matter it was the best solution. Now he only had to hope that he picked the cues up correctly and those two had also been reincarnated, as strange as it sounded.

—

As he heard someone knock on his door he frowned. This was unusual. Normally none would want to come near him. The only one to visit had been the Sandaime and even his visits got less the older he became. He assumed it had something to do with the fact that he looked almost exactly how he used to look in his last life. But then again why visit him in the first place?

Opening the door he came face to face with Izu- Sasuke. He internally flinched, they had hoped Izuna had come back with them but he had not seemed to recognize them. His thoughts ground to an abrupt halt as his unannounced visitor started to speak. „Tobi we have a problem." Well that was not what he had expected but at least it seemed Izuna had indeed come back with them.

And found trouble already.

He shot Izuna a deadpan stare and turned around leaving the door open in a silent invitation. He made his way to the kitchenette and set up the tea kettle whilst Izuna rummaged through his cupboards to find the cups. They had found out early on that all three of them enjoyed good tea and he had a bad premonition that the following conversation would demand something to soothe his nerves.

When they were both seated at the small table in the living room Izuna didn't seem to know where to begin. He was fidgeting. Tobirama frowned, if Izuna was fidgeting it was either an embarrassing topic or a convoluted one. He decided to speak about something else and let him gather himself in the meantime. „I'm glad you are here. We were beginning to think you were the only one to not be reincarnated and we would have to get you back another way." The tension in Izuna's shoulders eased a little. „I really can't say anything about that, I only got my memories about an hour ago", he grimaced, „which is actually related to our problem." If he didn't know better he would say Izuna was dancing around the subject. „There may or may not be somebody who has decided the Uchiha are a danger to Konoha." _What._ „What do you mean someone decided the Uchiha to be a danger towards Konoha?" „Ah, well that is the only reason I can come up with at the moment", Izuna licked his lips, „you see I know my brother, both of them, and mindless slaughter is not something either of them would do, unless they had a reason." Izuna seemed to wilt a little, shoulders hunched. _Alright_, Tobirama shook his head, _there was something here he was missing._ „I don't know Itachi but I knew Madara, before you died there would be no reason for him to mindlessly slaughter anyone, except his enemies but that you know, so what am I missing?" He really felt dread right know and he still could not pinpoint a reason. „He killed my clan." _What?_ „How the hell did he do that? Madara has been dead since decades."

Izuna looked startled then shook his head. „Not Madara, Itachi." Well now he was thrown, Madara he would have believed without a second glance, the Uchiha had slowly but surely drifted off the deep end after Izuna's death, but Itachi? He had met the clan heir in passing and the only thing he could pick up were sorrow, stress and a deep desire for peace. He furrowed his brow. „Why would Itachi kill off your clan? And leave you alive?" Izuna shrugged, „You tell me. I never saw the founding of this village and you were Hokage. Who has the power to order genocide?". That was unsettling. „Theoretically? The Hokage, but I know Saru he would not kill off a founding clan. At least I hope he hasn't become someone who would indiscriminately kill off a whole clan. Then there is the fact that you are alive. And that it could have been someone else. But off my head I don't know who would have the authority to command an ANBU commander to commit genocide and get away with it." „Yes the part with me being alive, can we spin it so I never went home today? I did not meet up with Itachi and I definitely did not see the massacre?" His answer was another deadpan. Tobirama pinched his nose, he should have known. But Izuna's plan was actually valid and would work. „You are very lucky I don't have ANBU following me everywhere anymore" he stated and drank down the rest of his tea. Then he went to refill his cup. „There is a spare futon in the wardrobe, along with blankets and pillows." He received an affirmative hum and Izuna went to set the spare futon up in the bedroom.

„Why did you have ANBU following you?" „I don't have the slightest idea. Saru is checking up on me now and then but I don't know the reason." He turned around and saw that Izuna had pulled the two futons next to each other, there was just enough place left that they could fit in a third. _Well_, he thought, _that would turn out to be convenient._


End file.
